Most young people only consider which colleges to apply to—but what if you’re unsure whether you should go to college at all? I’ve thought and written a lot about this issue, and here are my top suggestions:

A Few Kind Words

Blake Boles is open-minded, interested in everything, courageous, and passionately committed to individual development. I would expect good things to happen for young people who had the good fortune to hang out with Blake for a while.

John Taylor Gatto

New York State Teacher of the Year

Teenagers from all over Los Angeles came out of the woodwork to be a part of [Blake’s workshops] and left happy, inspired, and energized. Parents immediately started asking for him to come back to do workshops for them. We started plotting his return before he left.

Anna Smith & Brenna Gibson

Co-Founders, Urban Homeschoolers

Blake’s talk offered more than just great arguments for giving kids more control over their own education—he gave creative, inspiring, and practical advice for children and adults to exploit their strengths and pursue their passions. His talk is still reverberating through the Macomber community.

Ben Draper

Director, Macomber Center

Your work with my son has been paramount in his young adult growth and development. What stood out for me were the stories you shared of specific experiences that spoke directly to his own heart and life. The humor, lightness and laughter you weave into the support sessions you offer is also a great gift.

Laura Carpine

Unschooling Mom

Blake is an extraordinary figure and his presentation at Community Night was not only hilarious but exceptionally motivating for our students. . . I’ve talked to kids who were really impacted by Blake’s message and have taken steps to build some of his ideas into their own self-directed learning paths.

George Popham

Executive Director, Bay State Learning Center

I dropped out of high school, and now I’ve got a master’s degree and I work in higher education. I created an online college class for students with non-traditional educational backgrounds. I was looking for assigned texts for the class and found The Art of Self-Directed Learning. It is the only required text in the class.